The Food of Love and Other Autumn Reads

Yes, autumn has finally arrived in the Antipodes. It's less of a visual treat where I live than in other states but you can certainly feel a "change in the air."

The books below are not autumn related in any way. I just happen to be reading/re-reading them this season





THE FOOD OF LOVE by Anthony Capella




"You will learn all about Italian food. It is funny, witty and the love of food cannot be overemphasised if it tried. You will then learn why Italians from different regions are so fervent about their food. You will never call it Spaghetti Bolognese again unless the sauce actually comes from Bologna...nor want to drink cappuccino in Rome after 10am." - R Franco

That's an excerpt from an email from a recently re-acquainted friend from high school (thanks multiply, facebook). He now lives in the UK and is probably a bigger foodie than I am (please start that blog soon!). Unlike him, I'm yet to dine in a Michelin starred restaurant.


With that sort of recommendation and promise about a book how can I resist? I ordered it online soon after reading his email. I'm now three quarters through the book.

It may not be life changing literary work but there sure is plenty to learn about Italian food, the facets of love and how they relate.

WARNING: If you're squeamish about overtly sexual passages then this might not be for you.




KULINARYA by Glenda Rosales Baretto, Conrad Calalang, Margarita Araneta Fores, Myrna Segismundo, Jessie Sincioco and Claude Tayag

This book is a result of the Kulinarya movement. The group aims "to inspire everyone to refine Filipino cuisine." It is a collaboration of well known Filipino food personalities.

Much has been said about this Asia Society commissioned book. Not all of them favourable. I'd like to discover it for myself and form my own opinion.

It was on my "to buy" list when I last visited Manila. I really thought I had plenty of time to go back to the bookshop. Anyway, lesson learned...

Many thanks to a good friend of mine Carla from Sydney (I still owe you!) who managed to get me copy through a friend of a friend of a friend...don't know where it ends.

MEMORIES OF PHILIPPINE KITCHENS by Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan

Penned by the owners of the much-admired Cendrillon of New York (sadly they have shut their doors).

This is more than just a recipe book. It takes you on a journey of Philippine Culinary history told by various households from the diverse regions of the country. Some stories are very personal that somehow I've made my own.

This book, like Capella's, proves once again that food is more than just physical sustenance.

Love in the Time of Cholera

SYNOPSIS (taken from Urban Cinefile) :When young Colombian poet and telegraph clerk Florentino Ariza (Unax Ugalde) first sets eyes on the lovely Fermina (Giovanna Mezzogiorno) he falls desperately in love with her, vowing to be faithful and in love till he dies. Fermina's widowed mule trader father (John Leguizamo) is furious; he wants a man of social standing and wealth for his daughter, so takes her far away from Cartagena. On their return to the city, Fermina meets Dr Juvenal Urbino (Benjamin Bratt) who has earned a great reputation as the doctor who brought good medicine to the city, fighting the curse of cholera. They soon marry and spend a few years in Paris on an extended honeymoon. The mature Florentino (Javier Bardem), who has inherited a small shipping company, continues to nurture his love for Fermina, although his vow of fidelity has been broken ... several hundred times. Even in his old age, Florentino retains his love for Fermina, in the hope that perhaps one day ....

After reading the last page of the book I immediately dropped my lunch plans and headed straight to the nearest shop that stocks the DVD of Mike Newell’s film adaptation of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Love in the Time of Cholera.

I was so excited to watch the film! I made sure dinner was finished by 8pm and the kids are asleep by 8.30pm.

It still baffles me why filmmakers would choose to make a movie in English spoken with a thick non-English accent. Any film done in this manner is pretty hard to take seriously. And the actors just sounded ridiculous. Why can’t they just do it in straight English? Or better yet, why not just use Spanish which was the book’s original language?

Giovanna Mezzogiorno certainly looked beautiful all throughout the film but her portrayal of Fermina Daza somewhat fell short of what the author intended. I found it really challenging to find something in her that would make Florentino Ariza linger for over half a century. I think it was pertinent that the audience fall in love with her to make the film more plausible.

There was also a lot of “verbalisation” of emotions. I did not want the actors to “say” what their character is going through or what their character is feeling! I want to see it in their performance!

Mike Newell (director) and his scriptwriter Ronald Harwood opted for a literal interpretation of the book rather than a combination of fantasy and realism which is what characterises Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s works. As a consequence the film looks clumsy and incomplete.

In the end I couldn’t help but wonder how a director with a better understanding of the author’s language and culture – Pedro Almodóvar perhaps or even our very own Carlitos Siguion-Reyna – would have handled it.

Woe Is I

No, I am not lamenting my existence. The title of this post refers to one of the books I bought just a few minutes ago from Mary Ryan’s.

“Woe Is I” was written by Patricia T. O’Conner. It’s supposed to be the “Grammaphobe’s Guide to Better English in Plain English”. I am not a grammaphobe. Maybe I am. I don’t know! I don’t know what it means! I just would like to continue to improve my knowledge of the English language. Maybe I should be devoting more time to learning Mandarin but English would do for now. The happenings in Wall Street might change my opinion though…

The other book I bought was Emily Brontë’s classic “Wuthering Heights”. I’ve read this back in high school. I want to see if I have a different take on it now that I am more mature (age wise that is!).

And last, but certainly not the least, was Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s “Love in Time of Cholera”. Mike Newell bravely attempted to convert the book into film (after so many before him have refused). I haven’t seen the 2007 movie nor have I read the book.

I’ll write reviews in future posts!